The present invention is directed to an apparatus for high speed delivery of free flowing material. It includes a pair of parallel endless belts with a series of units called pockets suspended between them. It is particularly useful for delivery of free flowing material in cigarette manufacturing. This invention is used in a device which delivers free flowing material, such as charcoal granules, into receiving spaces separating filter plugs, as the plugs move on a conveyor (in the tobacco art, such a conveyor is called a garniture tape).
Several devices in the prior art, including one described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,623,404, include a belt or chain consisting of an endless series of links. In such devices, each link is connected to the preceding and following links forming an endless chain. The chain travels around a plurality of wheels or sprockets which provide the chain with drive, tension and position. The chain travels in part parallel with and adjacent to a garniture tape transporting a series of axially aligned filter plugs separated by spaces.
The links comprising such chains contain channels or funnels capable of channelling particulate matter. As the chain and the garniture tape travel parallel with one another, the links travel adjacent to the axially aligned filter plugs. During this adjacent travel, the funnels within the links register with the spaces between the filter plugs, and a dispenser delivers particulate matter to the funnels within the links. The funnels channel this particulate matter into the adjacent receiving spaces.
Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 3,464,324 includes an alternative embodiment utilizing a linked chain. This chain includes a web portion provided with a slot which allows the passage of granular material into voids separating filter plugs.
These presently utilized chains experience loss of tolerance in the connections between the individual links. Loss of tolerance in the connections causes variability in distance between the links, resulting in variability in distance between the apertures within the links. Due to this variability, apertures moving parallel with and adjacent to receiving spaces do not maintain registration with said spaces. This disfunction between apertures and receiving spaces results in inaccurate delivery of particulate material.
It would be desirable to replace these chains in the prior art with a pair of parallel endless belts with a series of units called pockets suspended between them. The pockets would contain funnels for channelling free flowing material and thereby replace the links in prior art devices. By eliminating links, the pockets device eliminates the tolerance which accompanies the connections between such links. Connecting individual pockets between parallel belts insures uniform spacing between the pockets and the funnels they contain. Such uniform spacing would help facilitate the accurate registry of the funnels with the parallel moving receiving spaces. Thus, pockets travelling adjacent to a garniture tape transporting filter plugs would deliver free flowing material into the receiving spaces more accurately than link devices.